


Discordia

by Winter Ashby (rosweldrmr)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Background Naruto/Hinata, F/M, Unrequited Kiba/Hinata
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-07
Updated: 2008-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-19 10:40:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29998104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosweldrmr/pseuds/Winter%20Ashby
Summary: Kiba was flat on his back, a warm body on top of him, straddling him, a cold metal blade to his throat and silky black hair falling over his face.
Relationships: Hyuuga Hanabi/Inuzuka Kiba





	1. The Law of Fives

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to take this chance to thank all the KibaHanabi fans out there (I know they exist). Especially aims21 for the lovely art (more, more I say!), forever3330 for helping MOD and creating the LJ comm I hang out at, purplealyssum from DA (my newfound KibaHanabi friend) and Kagura615 for posting at the comm. _See, there are unsolicited fans!!_ This is in response to the 10 themed challenge from **crack challenge** at LJ.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is a little different from a themed fic (it is all one continuous story, not segments) but I choose to use the prompts as more of a guide to model my plot around rather than sections needed to be completed. So this chapter (there will only be 2) has half the themes. They are (in order): Downpour, Solitude, Chance Meeting, Sarcastic, and Cold Hands. The last 5 themes will be in the next chapter (which I will have done very soon.) I would also like to dedicate this fic to a very good friend of mine. We don't speak anymore, and that sucks. But I wanted to say thank you for all the encouragement and inspiration he gave me.

"The Law of Fives is never wrong." _– Malaclypse the Younger, Principia Discordia, Page 00016_

* * *

_"You couldn't see this coming?" Caught in a downpour, Kiba's hair was thick with rain and clung to his face. Water dripped from his nose, over his lips and down the slope if this angled tattoo. He glared through the torrent at Hinata, who blushed three shades of red darker than she already was._

Soaked through, Akamaru was practically twitching with repressed glee. _He always did love the rain._ Kiba stood next to his faithful, yet ever playful companion and felt like screaming.

"I'm sorry, Kiba-kun. I – I was distracted."

"No shit!" Kiba bellowed, not meaning to, but angry still. He regretted it as he wished he could have balled his hands into fists. As it was, he felt useless and weak.

"That's enough." Shino interjected, calmer than he had a right to be. He was soaked through as well, his glasses fogged from the rain that slid over his parka.

And Hinata shivered, her arms wrapped around her waist as she nervously shifted from one foot to another. "That's not fair." She said it so quietly, he pretended he didn't hear a thing, or he might have apologized.

But he'd already apologized too much. He apologized for kissing her, apologized for making her cry because he stole her first kiss that she was saving for _someone else_ , apologized because he wasn't what she wanted, apologized because he wasn't Naruto.

He was sick of it, all of it. He wasn't going to apologize anymore. It was her fault they were caught in the downpour, stranded in the pounding rain just twenty feet from the servants' entrance to the Hyuuga compound.

"It's fucking freezing!" It was November and so cold it was almost snowing. The rain was thick and partially frozen.

"Kiba-kun, please…"

He growled. He knew he was being an ass, but the anger was eating away at him.

\---

They were operating as a three-man-cell on their last mission. Kurenai's son was almost 5 now, and soon entering the academy. And he'd watched Hinata for years now, years upon years, and waited, hoped, wished that one day she'd grow out of her school-girl crush. 21 and still waiting for her first kiss.

She was making a fire last night, her jacket was off and the mesh of her new jounin uniform was pulled tight across her chest. He could smell her from across the camp. Rich and earthy. She was close to her period and releasing pheromones. His hands twitched to touch her skin, her hair, breathe her in, taste her.

He was up and moving before he could stop himself, before he could remember that she wasn't his to touch. He pulled her to her feet, rough and all business. His claw dug into the supple skin of her upper arm and she gasped.

He didn't wait for her to catch her breath or speak. He kissed her, still gripping her arm, he ran his tongue through his lips and over hers. He could feel her breasts pressed against his chest and he walked her backwards towards a tree.

He opened his eyes in time to see hers, white and wide enough to encompass the full moon of that night.

He pulled back, his insides twisting and grinding against the sensation in his gut. A pickling kind of pain that spiraled down.

"K-Kiba?" She was too shocked for even formality.

He breathed heavily, trying to clear his mind. But all he did was breathe her in, her fear, her sorrow, her useless feelings of betrayal. He growled, dangerous and low. His pointed teeth showed past his tightly drawn lips.

"What's going on!?" Shino interrupted them, back from first watch. Good thing too, Kiba wasn't sure whether he could have called her a whore or kissed her again if Shino hadn't come along.

As it happened, Kiba pulled back, sharp and tearing her skin. Her blood tinged the air and he gagged on it. He fled, like the coward he was. He jumped to the branches and ran until his lungs burned and his calves cramped. Akamaru didn't follow. And Kiba was thankful.

He landed, three kilometers past their self-assigned perimeter and buried his head in his hands.

"Fucking fuck!"

He couldn't get the smell of her out of his mind. And the look on her face as he pressed against her. He knew she could _feel_ him. It was her own fault, for releasing chemicals that only he could smell. It was torture to be around her when she was like that.

But he'd always been able to control himself before. It was just tonight, they were alone, and he watched the way her breasts moved in the moonlight as she made the fire. She still smelled salty from sweating in the hot sun that afternoon.

"FUCK!" he swore again and died a little to know what he'd taken from her.

He was ashamed. Even then, as he touched himself to relieve the pent-up lust she stirred in him. He felt sick and wrong because even when he tried not to, he still thought of her when he was all alone at night, straining for completion.

The next morning, he apologized. Over and over again. Till his throat was sore and his knees ached. He laid his nose flat against the dirt of the clearing and begged her to forgive him.

"Just this once, please." His hands were clasped in front of him. He didn't dare look at her.

"Why did you…?"

"Because, I love you." He said it quietly, to the ground that smelled like her. The undertones, the notes of life and death all intertwined.

"I love Naruto." She didn't stutter, didn't falter, didn't even blink, he'd wager. And he _hated_ that Naruto could make her strong when all he ever did was make her laugh.

And that seemed to be the end of that. They packed up the camp, Shino careful to always stand between Kiba and her, like he was dangerous or something.

"I'm not gonna hurt her." He said under his breath as he rolled the tent up.

"You already have." Shino said without looking at him.

"You don't understand."

"Oh, I don't?" There was an inflection, a slight hitch in his voice that Kiba had never heard before. And it was odd to consider that they'd both fallen in love with Hinata. Sad almost.

They didn't speak of it anymore.

They made it to Konoha in silence, and an hour faster than they typically did. Everyone was in a hurry to forget this mission. But, as was customary, both Shino and Kiba walked Hinata home.

Until a blazing yellow head of hair got in their way.

"Hinata, Kiba!" Naruto sounded excited, still. It'd been nearly two weeks since the last round of the chunnin exams and he was still strutting. He didn't seem to mind that almost everyone else was a jounin now, including Kiba.

Kiba clenched his fists and turned to leave. But Akamaru barked and called him back. Akamaru was upset at him, for making Hinata sad. And as Kiba looked over his shoulder, he could see Hinata watching him.

But he could also _smell_ the guilt that leaked from her. She looked at Naruto and felt like she'd betrayed him. Even though Naruto was as clueless as ever.

"What's wrong Kiba?" Naruto asked and looked right at him.

"You are!"

"What?" Naruto seemed a little taken back by that.

 _Good_ , Kiba thought.

"Kiba-kun!"

He ignored Hinata and walked right up to Naruto. Their noses almost touching. Naruto always smelled like Ramen, even when it was seven in the morning. "You're a fucking moron, you know that."

Before Naruto could take a swing, Hinata already struck. Her gentle fists landed three consecutive hits, incapacitating both his arm and blocking his chakra flow.

In all the years Kiba had known Hinata, he'd never seen her do anything like that. But what made it all even worse was that it was him. The only person who stood up for her, helped her, trained her, watched her become powerful, encouraged her when no one else was there, and she attacked him without hesitation.

All for Naruto. _Always for Naruto_.

"What the hell is going on?" Naruto called as Kiba turned and headed back down the road, in the opposite direction.

"It's best if you leave it to us." Shino caught up with him in no time, and steered him slightly to the left. Right at the Hyuuga compound.

"I'm not going there!" Kiba tried to pull away, but without the use of his arms he was unbalanced and tipped slightly.

Hinata's small hand steadied him from the other side. "Don't touch me." He turned his slitted pupils in her direction and imagined hurting her.

"You need to rest until… until it wears off." She let go.

"I can rest at home!"

Akamaru barked and nudged him from behind. "Fucking dog."

Akamaru bit his ass, and Kiba cooperated quietly after that.

Then, twenty feet from the back door, the skies opened up. The cold, slushy rain drops were sobering.

Kiba turned to her, still fuming, still full of repressed _things_ he'd never be able to say, or do. "You couldn't see _this_ coming?"

…

"Kiba-kun, please…"

Shino and Akamaru pushed Kiba the last twenty feet, and through the low backdoor.

\---

Kiba had been inside the Hyuuga compound before. They were short visits to retrieve Hinata, who was always more than eager to escape. But he'd never been a prisoner before. Hinata shuffled him through the low door and apologized for not taking him in the main entrance.

All Kiba wanted to do was get away. He didn't want to be anywhere around Hinata and her soft, sad eyes. Or the way she smelled in the cold rain.

She pulled a door aside, the light wooden frame pulling on the tracks and making him twitch. This was the last place he wanted to be when he was angry, frustrated, guilty and emasculated. Shino set him down on a bed roll and stood up, removing his parka and glasses.

Hinata blushed at the sight of Shino's bare arms, and even that made Kiba want to take her wrist in his.

That was the moment when Inuzuka Kiba knew for certain that he'd never be good enough for Hyuuga Hinata. It was at that moment that Kiba forgot how to love. He tore the abstraction away from his mind, pushed it back, and let it be swallowed by the festering hate he felt.

"I'm transferring to a different team." He informed them as the water still dripped down his face, unable to wipe it away.

Hinata stopped her fussing with the lantern in the corner. She kept her back to him. "I think that would be best, Kiba-kun."

Shino didn't say anything as he pulled off Kiba's sandals and tossed them outside the door.

And that was the end of team 8.

\---

Kiba woke up sometime later. It was still night and the room they left him in was dark and the air was stale. He could smell Akamaru outside still, not allowed in the house. His left arm was tingly, but still not functional. And on his right arm, he managed to wiggle a finger or two, but nothing more.

He rolled on his side, and pushed with his legs against the cold wooden floor. He lumbered to the door and managed to wedge his toes into the crack. His slid it open with his foot and looked longingly at his sandals.

He could get new sandals.

He took off, barefoot, down the open air hall of the Hyuuga house. From the garden to his right, past the railings, he must have been somewhere at the south end, near the exit. It was probably where the servants' rooms were.

The branch family lived scattered through three different smaller concentric squares, and the Main branch occupied the very center of the compound. Akamaru walked along beside him, on the crunching grass.

Kiba was heading for what he _thought_ was the exit when he smelled something out of place for the night. There was a woman following him.

"Great." He moaned and stopped walking. "That's just what I need. A Hyuuga konoich to come flying out the night and attack me!" He screamed it at the inky sky, waiting.

He waited some more. But there was no movement for so long, he thought he might have imagined the smell of a woman.

Pounce.

Kiba was flat on his back, a warm body on top of him, straddling him, a cold metal blade to his throat and silky black hair falling over his face.

"Having fun?" He asked, defenseless as he was.

"What are you doing on private property?"

"Looking for you, gorgeous." He squinted through the dark, unable to see, and hoped that she was ugly as sin.

"I could kill you for that." The blade dug in, her breathe was hot against his face. She smelled peppery. "And for trespassing." She added, as if it was an afterthought.

"My, my. You'll never find a suitable husband with that kind of attitude." He chuckled and shook her body against his. She drew up higher, so her bare thighs were only slightly touching his pants.

"What business do you have here, mutt?"

Akamaru growled. She didn't flinch. Instead, her head turned just faintly and Kiba could see her smile at Akamaru. For a second, Kiba thought he'd fallen into an alternate dimension. The girl had long hair and no pants, but it was Hinata's face smiling at Akamaru.

"Hinata?"

The blade dug into his neck. He could smell his own blood and feel the trickle of it down his skin.

"Ha-na-bi. Don't forget it."

"Ki-ba." He retorted. "Learn to love it."

"Pfft." She husked and moved to the side a little, looking at his face from a different angle. "I should have known."

"You gonna sit there all day like that, or you gonna ask me to marry you?" he lifted up his pelvis to graze under her bare thighs.

She moved very fast.

"Don't you dare touch me, you filthy animal." She spat it at him, like he was beneath her. Which, he supposed, he was.

"You're Hinata's little sister, aren't you, Hana-chan?"

"Don't call me that."

"What, Hana-chan or Hinata's little sister?" he tried to keep the banter light as he rolled to the side and began to stand.

"What's wrong with you?"

"A lot." Kiba replied as he stood and toppled over onto the wall.

"Clearly."

"Look, you gonna point me in the right direction or what?" He only had the energy to look over his shoulder at her.

Her arms were crossed over her chest, and her sleeping robe rode up along her hips. She really did look like Hinata, except her face was thinner, more angled. It made her look more dangerous than Hinata.

She unfolded one hand and pointed out across the gardens.

"Thanks a bunch." His voice was so drenched in sarcasm, he was surprised he didn't choke on it.

"What'd you do to piss her off?" She called as he began scooting down the wall, towards the steps to the garden.

"Who?" he called, already knowing.

"I've never seen her so upset before." He ignored her, and stumbled.

His face in the dirt, a mouth-full of grass, he conceded that perhaps Hinata was a little more upset that he realized. "I kissed her." He mumbled into the ground.

Her hands were cold, like ice wrapped around his arm. He thought she must be made of marble to be so cold. But when he looked up at her, as she flicked the dirt and pebbles from his face, she gave him a sneering look.

Kiba didn't really know what he expected her to do. Maybe blush like Hinata or draw back at his open honesty. But all she did was smirk and help lean him against the railing as she used her freezing hands to clean off his face and shirt. "You should've known better." She didn't look at him, but held him stead with one hand and swatted at his shabby brown hair with the other. "She's been saving that kiss for a long time."

"Yeah." Kiba didn't know why, but he couldn't bring himself to look at her. Akamaru appeared at his left, helping to support him.

Hanabi dropped to one knee, her sleeping robe hiked up her thigh as she buried her face into the scruff of Akamaru's neck.

"Careful." Kiba warned. Akamaru didn't like it when people touched his neck.

"No need. We have an understanding." Her voice was muffled from all the fur.

"Oh, and what's that?"

Hanabi turned her face to look up at him and smiled. It was a wicked sort of smile that made Kiba gulp back the urge to run. Then she turned back to his shinobi inu, and proceeded to rub his ears.

Akamaru wiggled his enormous tail, and panted like there was no tomorrow. He'd never seen Akamaru take to anyone like that before. He'd never even heard the kind of delighted little half-barks that he was making at that moment.

She growled, low and soft, at Akamaru and nuzzled her face against his giant snout, full of razor-sharp teeth. Either she was fearless, or insane. Kiba suspected a little bit of both. "You see." She said as she stood, hands on her waist and completely oblivious to the fact that he could now see the tiny hint of her underwear from under her robe. "He's a good puppy." She made a baby noise and looked at Akamaru, who just wagged his tail some more.

"He's hardly a puppy."

"And you're hardly standing." She was right; of course, he was slumped so far over the rail he was almost going horizontal. "You should rest, until Onee-san's jutsu wears off."

He thought he heard an air of laughter in her voice. "Oh, and I suppose all this is very funny, your highness."

"Wrong sister." She commented casually, and took his arm back in her cold hands.

Kiba felt drained, like all the fight he had left in him evaporated in her presence. She looked so much like her sister, which made his heart ache, but she was so different. She was cold, and aristocratic. She was powerful, confident, and boastful. She had no sense of propriety or decency. She was a strange combination that made his head spin.

With her arm under his arms, keeping him up, he hung his head and admitted defeat.

"Help take me home."

She didn't say anything at first. She just walked him back away from the exit. "I can't leave the compound." She told him quietly.

Kiba didn't really know what to say to that. So he just let her lead him back towards the vacant room that had his sandals outside.

"Have you ever read Dante's Inferno?"

"What?" Kiba looked at her through heavy eyelids, the night creeping in on him.

"It's a book, part of a trilogy, actually, called the Divine Comedies. They're not funny at all. It's western." She almost sounded wistful; Kiba thought of books and scrolls and felt bored.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"In them, Dante goes on a tour of hell. And in hell, there are nine rings." She steered him through the still-opened shoji door and back on the bedroll. It was uncomfortable and still cold. He felt it in his bones, especially with her fingers still wrapped around his arm.

"I don't believe in hell."

"I do." Said it so quietly that Kiba stopped trying not to listen and let her finish. "As you go down the rings, it gets worse and worse." Kiba nodded, that made a kind of karmic sense. "And in the last ring, the ninth ring, that's were the worst of the worst sinners go when the die."

Kiba waited for her to continue, but she seemed to be taking an awfully long time to speak again. So Kiba spoke a soft, "I see." and folded his feet underneath himself as she settled on the floor next to him.

"If the Hyuuga compound was hell, the inner house, where the main branch live, that would be the ninth ring."

"Because of all the sinning?" Kiba asked, trying desperately to lighten the mood a little, to bring back the dangerous girl he'd been so enamored with before.

"No, because it's the worst kind of hell."

Kiba suddenly felt very, very small in her presence. She was five years younger than he was, but at that moment, he felt like he knew nothing at all. Or, at least, knew nothing about what it was like to be Hyuuga Hanabi.


	2. Five tons of Flax

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter the themes are (in order): Normalcy, Scars, Meeting in Secret, Fate and Tea.

"Is there an essential meaning behind it?"

* * *

By the time the morning crested in, and Kiba cracked an eye open, she was gone. He hadn't really expected to see her again. But still, the fleeting memories of the night, her hands on his bare skin, Akamaru walking beside them, the dead weight of his arms, it all seemed like a dream. Especially when she told him about the strange book, and hell.

He would have told himself he made it all up, her pants-less entry, falling face-first into the ground, (he really did hope that one was a dream)… except, he'd never heard of this book before. And Kiba knew he wasn't creative enough to make up something like that.

He flexed his hand, experimentally and was glad to see that he seemed to have full usage of his appendage back.

Kiba paid a visit to the Hokage later that day, after a shower and he'd purged every last picture of team 8 from his room. He requested to join ANBU as a solo member. Tsunade narrowed her eyes and steepled her fingers.

"It's customary for members of ANBU to be chosen, Kiba." He watched her honey eyes and the way the swept over his body. She could see the damage inflicted yesterday on his skin, no doubt.

"Then make an exception." He didn't flinch.

"Why?"

He shrugged, as if it meant nothing to him. "I haven't got anything else."

The tattoo was still healing when he got his first assignment. They were all the same. Long missions, dangerous assignments. One day bleed into the next, just a long train of endless days and veiled nights. Protect the dignitary. Kill a rouge ninja. Seduce the sister of clan to steal information. It was all very normal.

Normal for a shinobi.

Kiba took every mission he was assigned, and volunteered for more. If it was dangerous, if it was impossible, if it was stupid, foolish, or any other synonym Shino liked to throw his way, the more likely Kiba was to be the only one to take it. Well, he and Akamaru. He was just as enthusiastic about taking the missions. Though, Kiba had a sneaking suspicion it was because he wanted to make sure Kiba didn't get himself killed. As it was, he was well on his way to amassing a collection of various scars, all of which had classified stories to go with them.

Not long after he heard that Hinata was forced to stop going on missions. Once her father realized she was the perfect bait to dangle in Clan affairs. She was too valuable to him to let her on dangerous C rank missions. An arranged marriage with the heiress to the Hyuuga fortune was a handy weapon to have.

She was now a full time petal that danced on the wind her father blew.

Shino spent most days training, waiting for something. What, exactly, Kiba wasn't sure.

He pretended he didn't care, most of the time. But some of the time, he surprised even himself by thinking not of Hinata, but Hanabi. The way she'd spoken that night. It was haunting. And when he was on long missions in other countries, he often found his thoughts drifting to her.

What was she doing? Would she be strong enough to resist her father's meddling. What she tasted like. Other useless, purely speculative, unnecessary, delusional things like that.

\--

It'd been nearly a year since he left team 8 that Kiba got the worst news of his life.

Hinata was getting married.

He never considered that Hinata might bend so far for her father that she would give up on even Naruto. But on an early autumn morning he found himself in the Hyuuga compound once again. His palms were itchy. Shino had insisted he come. He told Kiba it would be disrespectful not to. Unfortunately for him, the Godaime agreed.

She made sure he was assigned on no missions for the week leading up to it. He was tense and angry. Mostly at Hinata. Because she's pushed him away, made it clear that she didn't want him and now, here she was, marrying some distant cousin to make her father happy.

Most of the village was present. It was the first marriage of his generation. Most shinobi's didn't marry. So it was a rare event that seemed to bring old teammates out of the woodwork.

Of course Naruto was there. He'd just come back from a solo ANBU mission to Sound. He'd returned victorious, and the pride (and talk) of the village when he entered the great gates with the unconscious body of Uchiha Sasuke draped over his shoulder. Even Kiba had to admit, he'd never seen a smile so brilliant in his whole life.

"I can't believe she just gave up." Ino whispered to Sakura who had the good sense not to talk one rows behind an inu shinobi. Kiba 'humpf'ed and tried to ignore them. It wouldn't have been so unbearable if they'd just let Akamaru in. But he was turned away at the entrance. Honestly, he wasn't all that surprised. He envied Akamaru. He was free to spend the afternoon in the forest, hunting while Kiba was forced to watch his worst nightmare unfold right in front of him.

"Gave up what?" Naruto leaned back from his seat two places over from Kiba.

"Nothing." Ino quirked and Kiba could hear her fidgeting.

"Is it just me, or is everyone acting really weird?" Naruto leaned towards Shino and Kiba.

"That is because Hinata is getting married." Shino always did have useless things to say.

"I know that!" Naruto answered, clearly annoyed. "I mean, people are acting weird around me. I know it's no secret how I feel about what Hinata's dad made her do… giving up being a ninja like that, but still. I didn't do anything wrong."

"That's not why they're acting strange." Kiba answered, surprising himself a little. He hadn't really expected to speak, especially not to Naruto.

"What is it then?"

"You can't honestly be that stupid, can you?" Kiba didn't bother looking at him. He was focused on the center of the far end of the room, where Hinata would be entering any minute.

"I don't know what you're talking about Kiba. You're all crazy!"

"Sasuke was right." He heard Sakura behind him inhale sharply. "You are a moron." He finally tore his eyes away from the door to look at Naruto. Shino gave him a withering look, but said nothing else. It was time someone said something.

"Wha-?"

"Hinata is in love with you, has been for year. _Years_. Since before we were chuunin, back when we were in the academy. You're the only reason she even became a shinobi." Kiba snorted at the look of absolute horror on Naruto's face. "She said you gave her strength."

"That can't be true."

"Why else do you think she faints and blushes every time you look at her." Naruto's lips gapped, like a dying fish as his mind feebly tried to wrap around what he was saying. "I loved her." Kiba could hear everyone else around him hush at the statement.

"It's not so surprising. She's beautiful, and strong. Compassionate, loyal. She's a good shinobi, and a better person. But when I kissed her, once, she…" Kiba wasn't even sure why he took it that far, what made him confess such a private thing in such a public place. "She loves you, you idiot. But all you ever talked about was Sasuke. So she moved on, let her father force her to become nothing more that a bargaining chip. And now she's going to get sold to the highest bidder, all because you're too much of a fucking moron to see what's right in front of you."

"But…" he seemed to be stuck on that thought for a long moment. Until the door slid open, and Hinata emerged.

It felt like all the air in his lungs evaporated at the sight of her. The sun behind her, her hair was pulled tight around her head. Her hair was decorated with tiny white flowers. She was wearing a dark blue traditional wedding robe, long and covered every inch of her. She smelled like the white powder that was caked on her face, and the root that was smeared red on her lips.

It wasn't how he would've wanted to see her on their wedding day, how he used to image it, but still she was beautiful. More so than he could bare to look at. Kiba turned away, back to Naruto who was still staring at her, dumbstruck. "All I ever wanted was her, and all she ever wanted was you."

Kiba took a long, steadying breath and stood. It took every ounce of courage in him to look at her again. "Hinata," he paused on long enough for every head in the crowd to turn. "You're better than this." And with that, Kiba turned from his isle and walked from the hall. The door was loud as it echoed shut behind him. He knew he'd never be allowed near her again. But he couldn't just let her sell her life away. He had to at least try. Though, he knew the only voice in that hall that had the power to break through to her was Naruto's.

\--

"That was very dramatic."

"And completely pointless, she never cared what I thought anyway." He wasn't surprised to hear Hanabi's voice coming from the shadows by the steps to the hall. But he didn't turn. He liked the feeling of the sun on his back. "You here to kick my ass?"

"No." he measured the rustling of cloth and estimated that she'd stepped out of the shadows. "It's none of my concern who my sister marries, or why."

"You don't care?"

"She's old enough to make her own decisions, and mistakes." There was an undertone to her words that he didn't quite follow.

"And you, how long have you been standing in the shadows?" He asked as he turned.

"Forever." She was dressed in formal Hyuuga robes, hair done up like a doll, same white powder and red lips. Flowers in her hair, dark black liner around her wide, too-white eyes. She wore a purple obi littered with black twisting flowers. The sight of her, dressed so similar, like she might break if he touched her, made him snap.

His feet barely touched the ground; just the tips of his shoes grazed over the dirt as he seized her arm and pushed her back against the steps. He wasn't sure exactly what he was doing. But she didn't pull away, or even make a sound as he pushed her against the steps, back to a wall, and loomed over her. He took a moment to study her face, and off-white eyes. Then he ran his thumb over her lips and up her cheek, pulling the blood red off her lips and exposing her pale skin.

"This isn't you." He hissed in her ear, pulling her face to his shirt to wipe the makeup away. "The powder, these robes, none of this is you."

And to his great shock, she didn't protest. "How would you know?"

"Because, you're not like this."

At that, she leaned back, head scrapping against the concrete tangling and tearing her hair as she looked at him. "I'm not her."

"I know." He did know. Being that close, smelling her, the feel of her chest against his, her cold hands freezing through his jacket where she held his arms just as tighly as he did hers, he _knew_ she wasn't Hinata.

"If she wants to do nothing with her life and marry for the sake of the clan, then that's her decision. But that won't be my fate." Then, she pushed him back. He stumbled, like a toddler and fell at her feet. Ass in the dirt, he looked up through the streaming sunlight at her. She was strong, stronger than he expected. "I won't blush if you get too close, or look away when our eyes meet. I won't bow my head and _do as I'm told_. And I will never, ever be a replacement for her."

Kiba would have retorted, would have told her she wasn't a replacement for something he'd given up on. But he didn't have the chance.

"STOP HIM!" A booming voice came from the hall.

"Something tells me, the clan will have other things to worry about other than hunting you down, mutt." She spoke sharply and turned towards the doors.

"Run!" The doors swung open to admit a whirl of brilliant yellow hair and a flurry of blue wedding robes. Naruto was carrying Hinata fireman style, over his shoulder, sprinting down the steps, three at a time. They flew past Kiba and Hanabi so quickly; he barely had time to take in the _huge_ smile that was plastered all over Hinata's extremely red face.

"Thanks!" He heard Naruto call as they vanished around a corner, just as the rest of the occupants of the hall came stumbling out. It appeared as though the younger generation were stalling the clan, giving Naruto enough time to get away. Even Neji seemed to trying his best to stall Haishi.

"Which way did they go, daughter?"

"I didn't see."

The look of hatred that colored her fathers face was enough to make the slightest hint of trepidation dance through her eyes. It was unnerving to see her look upended, meek for anyone. She had been so bold, so brash before.

"Insolent –" He raised a hand to Hanabi. But she didn't flinch, didn't even bat an eyelash as he struck her cheek. Her skin puckered red where Kiba had wiped the powder away.

Before Kiba could move to… well to do _what_ , he wasn't sure. Just something, _anything._ But before he could move to help her/ hurt him, Akamaru was at her side, teeth snarled, hair along his spine stood on end. Even Kiba had to admit, he could look fearsome when he wanted.

"I'm not a child anymore." She told her father as a crowd of onlookers gawked and Hyuugas of all shapes and sizes filed past them, byakugans activated and focused in the direction Naruto and Hinata had fled. "And I'm not the heir to the Hyuuga clan, she just ran away with a jinchuuriki, chichiyou. So now you have nothing. No daughters left to barter with, no heirs to inherent the mighty clan you built on the blood of your own brother… nothing."

And with that, she turned from her father, cheek still red, one hand buried in Akamaru's fur and the other held at her side, trembling slightly. Whether it was from anger or fear he couldn't be sure. She masked her smell with perfumes and floral shampoos. Truthfully, if he'd been trying hard enough he would've been able to decipher the slight changes in her scent. But he wasn't. He was more concerned with how to follow her without making it look like she needed his protection.

He settled for a nonchalant swagger as he passed her father and pointed to his dog. "I go where he does." He said under his breath as he passed.

Her father gave him a look that made his skin want to shrivel and peel from his bones. He quickened his pace and followed her around a corner.

\--

"Wanna get some tea?"

She stood, waiting for him halfway down the road, already wiping the rest of her makeup off on her sleeve. She smiled at him, like she knew he would ask all along.

After that, Kiba didn't volunteer for the 'suicide' missions anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> This work was previously posted on [FF.net](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3933317/1/).


End file.
